


Conner Apparently Can't Knock Like a Normal Person

by boy1dr, Tashi_Lupin



Series: YJTS 'Verse [4]
Category: DCU, Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: Coming Out, Gen, Team as Family, Trans Conner Kent, Trans Dick Grayson, Trans M'gann M'orzz
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-21
Updated: 2016-06-21
Packaged: 2018-07-16 08:12:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,972
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7259509
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/boy1dr/pseuds/boy1dr, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tashi_Lupin/pseuds/Tashi_Lupin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Robin sits out of training due to period pains, and Conner and M'gann get worried. It leads to them all finding some things out about each other.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Conner Apparently Can't Knock Like a Normal Person

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys! boy1dr here! It's been an absolute blast working on this with Tashi_Lupin and I'm really excited to be starting to bring both my friends and more trans characters into this 'verse! Enjoy! 
> 
> Trigger warnings: 
> 
> Menstruation, dysphoria, and discussion of transphobia

_Recognized: Robin B01_

 

Dick pulled Dinah aside almost as soon as he got to the cave.

“I’m skipping out on sparring today,” he said.

“Why?” Dinah raised an eyebrow until Dick gestured vaguely towards his abdomen. “Ohhh,” she said. She nodded, then smiled. “Y’know, a little birdie told me that there’s some chocolate ice cream in the freezer that Wally hasn’t gotten to yet.”

“I’m the only other bird here, BC.” Dick laughed. “But thanks for letting me know.”

“You know, you don’t HAVE to come in when you’re feeling this bad.”

“I’m not gonna lie around the Batcave. B worries too much.”

“You gonna be okay?” Dinah said, laying a hand on his shoulder.

“I’ll live,” Dick said. He grimaced, but almost immediately turned it into a smile. “Thanks for checking on me. Send Wally if you need me?" 

“Will do,” Dinah said. Dick leaned into her half-embrace for a moment, then headed off to see if there really was any ice cream.

* * *

 

Robin hadn’t been at training. Like at all, even though Conner had heard the zeta sound off his arrival. Did Rob catch that “sick” thing he had heard about? Throwing a blanket over his shoulder, Conner headed towards Robin’s room. If Rob was sick, he would need moral support. He wasn’t very good at it, but no else seemed very concerned about Robin skipping.

Then again, no one else had super hearing. They probably hadn’t realized Robin was here at all.

Conner chewed his lip, which Megan had told him he really shouldn't do but he did anyways, as he walked down the halls.

Speak of the devil (what did that even mean? Conner didn’t really understand most of the idioms that were floating around in his brain.), Meg was floating past him. He realized he must be walking really slowly, dreading handling emotional confrontation by himself. He tugged on the hem of her sweater and she turned.

“Hm?” Meg cocked her head as she looked down at him.

“Do you know what’s up with Robin?”

Megan closed her eyes for a moment before shaking her head. “No, and he's shut himself out of the link.” She studied Conner’s face. “Want me to check on him with you?”

Conner nodded. “You’re better at this stuff than me…” he mumbled gruffly.

They reached Robin’s room. Conner pushed open the door, too forceful from worrying, not even registering he’d broken the lock.

Conner’s eyes widened. He could hear a steady, sleepy, beat from Robin’s heart so he knew he wasn't dead. It had been his first thought when he saw the boy laying on his bed in only underwear with three bottles of pills on the nightstand. Across the room there was what Conner had to assume was a tank top.

 

* * *

 

Dick groaned. If Alfred were here, he would totally tell Dick not to take another Midol, but Alfred wasn’t here and Dick could make his own bad decisions.  Dick fumbled with the blister packet, popping another pill into his mouth. The ice cream was long since gone, the carton on the floor somewhere halfway across the room. Hopefully not dripping chocolate on his binder, which he’d thrown off for being too tight on his tender chest.

Wally had stopped by earlier for a few minutes, long enough to bring him a heating pad and press a kiss to his cheek with a quiet “Hang in there, Rob.”

Dick figured he’d come by again later. Hopefully Artemis would wait until he was ready to reemerge; as much as he loved her, this was a conversation he wasn’t quite ready to have yet. While he had some time to himself, he might as well get some sleep. He couldn’t feel cramps while he was sleeping. Probably.

He took a swig of water from the bottle on his nightstand, rearranged the heating pad on his stomach, and let his head fall back against the mattress with a dull thud. It wasn’t long before he dozed off.

Dick didn’t know how much time had passed when he was awoken by a loud crunch and light streaming into his room. He sat bolt upright, grabbing at his bedpost for his utility belt.

“Conner?!” he said once he’d identified the intruder.

Then Dick remembered he was shirtless, breasts on display for all the world (or at least Conner and...was that M’gann behind him?) to see. He shrieked as he grabbed at his sheets, pulling them over his chest.

“Get out of my suvvin’ room!” he yelled. Hopefully they hadn’t seen? His chest was still small enough that maybe he could play it off as a trick of the light. Now to figure out how to get his binder back on without them noticing.

Conner wasn’t leaving. Of course he wasn’t leaving. It was Conner. Great.

 

* * *

 

Those were breasts alright. Robin had breasts; he could deal. He had seen breasts before, or Megan’s at least.

Apparently, Robin could not deal. Conner didn’t recognize all the words he’d said, but by the way Robin yelled them, he was pretty sure he was swearing. By now, Conner understood not wanting people to see your body, but Robin seemed extra upset and his heartbeat was panicky. Conner could feel himself turning the color of his sigil.

“Robin?” Megan asked softly. She passed Conner to sit on the end of Robin’s bed, folding her hands on her lap. “Rob, are you having your period?”

Now that Megan mentioned it, Conner could smell the dead blood smell he had come to associate with the excruciating pain that came once a month and left Conner curled up and pressing on his abdomen. The first time this had happened to him he had thought he was dying.

“WAIT!” Conner exclaimed, rushing over to throw the forgotten blanket onto Robin’s shoulders and fuss over him. “You get them?!”

He had never met anyone else who had periods. Well, he assumed at least some people on the Team did, but he didn’t know for sure and didn’t go asking or looking for evidence. No one else seemed to be in as much pain as he always was, but Robin seemed to be.

Conner felt really bad that Robin had to go through the terrible pains. He shoved the water bottle in Robin’s face like an aggressive mother hen. Robin shoved his hand away, upset.

“What do you mean?! I told you to get out of my suvvin’ room! Both of you! Nash avri!”

Neither of them left, though Conner dropped his head in shame. Megan adjusted the blanket over Robin, who tried to swat her hand away.

“It’s okay,” she said. “Is there anything we can do?”

 

* * *

 

“You can leave,” Dick said. He pulled the blanket over his chest and crossed his arms underneath it.

“But...wait!” Conner said. He looked like a scolded puppy, and Dick might’ve taken pity on him about anything else. But not this. “You’re a boy, and you get periods?”

Dick gritted his teeth. “You’re a couple of aliens. What would you know about how humans work?!”

Conner’s face fell even further. “But...I’ve never...I thought I was the only one.”

Dick’s eyes widened. He froze, dropping his death grip on the edges of the blanket.

“The only one what?” he said, voice quieter.

“The only boy who had periods.”

Dick stared for a few more seconds, then slowly relaxed. “Could somebody PLEASE close my door? I don’t want the whole mountain to hear this conversation.”

Megan obliged, pulling it shut telekinetically.

“I’m…. Sorry about your lock,” Conner mumbled, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly

“You can fix it later. Just...what do you mean?”

“I thought… I thought Cadmus had messed something up. I didn’t think other boys got this.”

Dick took a deep breath. “Well...not all boys do. But I do. Um. Crap.“

“Are you alright?” Megan asked.

“Yeah I’m… I didn’t really expect to have this conversation today. Okay. Please tell me you’ve heard the ‘boys have penises, girls have vaginas’ thing.”

“What? Black Canary said that wasn’t right though.” Conner scrunched his eyebrows together.

“It’s not. But there are some people who think it is. And when you’re born, the doctors assume you’re a boy or a girl because of it, even though those aren’t even the only options.”

“Well that’s dumb,” Conner said, turning to look at Megan for confirmation. “You agree, right Meg?”

Megan looked at the ground, one hand squeezing the other hard enough to turn it pale. “It’s like that on Mars too. But yes, it is dumb.”

“When I was born, the doctors thought I was a girl,” Dick said. “Obviously, they were wrong.” He laughed quietly. “My parents noticed pretty early, though, and they gave me the space to figure out who I was.”

“That's good of Batman and your other parent,” Meg smiled. Dick didn’t correct her; that was a can of worms for another time.

“So I’m a boy. But I have…" Dick let the blanket fall, and gestured to his chest and between his hips. “All of this stuff. My body doesn’t really line up with what my mind tells me it’s supposed to look like.”

Meg winced.

“But there are ways to make it fit!” Dick said, assuming she was just pitying him. “I mean, it’s not a bad thing. Some people think it is, but they’re wrong. It’s not any different than people who get surgery on their face to change it, or from you changing what you look like.”

Megan bit her lip hard. Dick tensed, eyes narrowing.

“Even if people aren’t like me on Mars, could you at least try to understand?” Dick snapped, trying to hide the fear in his eyes.

Meg took a deep breath. “I DO understand. I understand too well.”

Conner pulled Meg against his chest in a half hug and squeezed her shoulder.

“There aren’t many people like that on Mars,” she said slowly. “That’s why it was so hard to be one.”

* * *

 

Megan had explained to him before that she wasn’t really considered “normal” on Mars, but Conner didn’t really understand, not having much of a grasp on the concepts of things like gender and genitalia. That talk had been before he had gotten his first period and the topic hadn’t really come up since. Conner had realized it was a sore subject for Meg. But looking at Robin’s face, he could see that the _worryfearanger?_ had melted away into _happinessrelief._

“So that’s why you didn’t want to unshift?” Dick said.

Meg nodded, moving a bit out from behind Conner.

“And why you can’t do guys right?”

She nodded again. “Yeah.”

“Damnit, I should’ve noticed! I should’ve said something!”

“It’s okay, you had nothing to base it off.”

“World’s Greatest Detective Junior, remember? B would be so mad at me. But at least he’d be happy that I had trans--GUYS! I have trans friends now!”

Conner didn’t know exactly what trans meant, but Robin’s happiness and excitement was contagious

Robin cackled in glee like he did during missions, except it was more endearing when he was bouncing on his bed slightly, eyes sparkling a little. Conner didn’t think that Robin realized he wasn’t wearing a mask, but he wasn’t gonna clue him in. He looked really happy. “There’s three of us! I can’t believe there’s three of us!”

He pulled both Megan and Conner into an unexpected hug. Conner couldn’t see it, as his face had more or less been shoved into Robin’s hair, but he could feel Megan smiling and he couldn’t help grinning either.

“We gotta stick together,” Robin said. “We’re officially a squad now.”

Then he pulled away and grinned up at Conner deviously. “Hey Supey, do you think our periods will sync up?”

“...wait.... what?”

“I’ll explain later.”

**Author's Note:**

> Angloromani Translations:  
> suvvin' - fucking  
> Nash avri! - Get out!
> 
> I take full blame if I messed anything up there; I couldn't find a lot of good resources. Dick tends to slip back into Angloromani when he's especially stressed, tired, or in pain (he's all three here) for two reasons: he's not allowed to swear in English, and his language processing is impaired so he is focusing less on what he's saying and tends to slip back into the diction he used growing up (I write Dick as atypical autistic, and codeswitching can be HARD when under some kind of stress). Let me know if I should fix/change anything! - boy1dr


End file.
